


Five times Raleigh listens to Chuck singing and one time he doesn’t

by Klayr_de_Gall



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst and Humor, Canon-Ending, Chuck loves to sing, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Music, M/M, Mako is so Done, Raleigh is a Dork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-07 23:18:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10372059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klayr_de_Gall/pseuds/Klayr_de_Gall
Summary: The first time Raleigh is hearing this low, rich voice it leaves him speechless and blinking like an owl. It is not the best voice, not even the loudest but the way the notes carry across the Jaeger bay, reflected by all the metal and angles, loaded with such soft emotions, gets him bone deep.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by some remark about Raleigh and Chuck and the Song “Call Me Maybe”. It just went downhill from there. The song was in the first few drafts but got lost in some angst eventually and then it came back! This is not the first time I upload that one-shot here but I didn't like the plot of the first draft anymore and so I changed a lot in part 3 to 5, making it way more Chaleigh-filled. It also doesn't fit with the timeline of the movie. There are 2-3 days between the double-event and Operation Pitfall here. Also tried to correct my writing and grammar. Hope it worked…  
> List of songs at the end!  
> Now betaed by the amazing EveandJohnny!! <3  
> Thank you! Hope you enjoy!

1.  
The first time Raleigh is hearing the low, rich voice it leaves him speechless and blinking like an owl. It is not the best voice, not even the loudest but the way the notes carry across the Jaeger Bay, reflected by all the metal and angles, loaded with such soft emotions, gets him bone deep. After his long second day in Hong Kong’s Shatterdome, after the compatibility tests in the kwoon, the discussions with Stacker, them nearly blowing up LOCCENT with Gipsy’s plasma cannon and fighting with that arrogant jackass Hansen when he had insulted his copilot – and that’s what Mako will be, what Mako is - the American Ranger is just glad to find some silence alongside his new partner. He is sitting with the young Japanese woman on one of the platforms in the Jaeger Bay, food tray half empty between them, and his beautiful 250 feet tall Jaeger in front of them. Raleigh has noticed that Gipsy Danger looks different now. That she looks better. Without as much as a dent or a scratch. Sometimes he is looking at her and can feel all the old scars on her, mirroring the ones on his body. Raleigh never wanted to get back into the Conn-pod of that machine, never wanted to have another person in his head after his brother. But now it is all he wants.

“When was the last time you saw her heart?” Mako asks quietly and his eyes rise to hers for a short moment. She is radiating a calmness and something soft underlain with steel but he can feel her insecurity and sadness through the remains of their intense drift. She doesn’t try to shield these feelings from him and he respects her a lot for that.

“It has been a while.”

They fall into comfortable silence and watch the techs dismantle some parts of the giant mecha’s chest to run some checks on her core. The slow pulsing of the Jaeger is comforting. The blonde man isn’t sure if he really can feel her under his hands or if that is just in his head – maybe it always had been. Mako smiles, a soft twitch of the corners of her lips. But before she can open her mouth to say something about the thoughts she has picked up from him, they get interrupted by the voice of a man on the platform above them. At first, it seems to be soft humming, but Raleigh can make out words as things in the Jaeger Bay quiet down a bit.

”… Come a long way from where we began  
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again  
When I …”

The singing gets lower while the voice seems to wander a little bit further away from them, fades into the background noises. Raleigh releases his breath. He hadn't noticed that he was holding it.

Mako is smiling fondly beside him, looking up at the roof, listening to the uneven singing and the steps not quite in sync with it. He wants to ask her who that is, why the voice is strangely familiar to him, but before he can open his mouth a loud shout echoes through the Jaeger Bay.

“Oi, Baby Hansen! Sing bit louder for us!” It is Aleksis heavy accented voice, carrying through the whole hall. Everything goes quiet. It seems that even Gipsy stops whirring and thrumming for a moment, matching Raleigh’s stopping heartbeat. Every J-tech in the Bay seems to freeze - waiting for the violent reaction they think will come. It is making time stop, making it hard to tell if it lasts mere seconds or a minute.

Then a big oil-flecked wrench gets thrown over the railing. It disappears down to the far floor, followed by a loud and snarky “Zatknis Kaidanovsky!” in perfect Russian.  
There is laughter all around the Bay. It sounds so pure and light-hearted that Raleigh feels a big smile threatening to spread across his face. Such bright emotions are nothing of the ordinary these days, with the war in everyone’s soul and Kaijus looming on their doorstep. And besides all their fighting and differences the American Pilot is feeling a spark of affection for the arrogant brat. Not everyone is able to make so many people laugh without even trying. Even if he can’t wrap his brain around the fact that this is Chuck, singing some old song. Chuck Hansen of all people. The younger man above them is going back to whatever he is doing at the moment, along with all the other Techs in the Bay.  
At a loose what to say about the obscure situation he just had witnessed, Raleigh takes a sidelong glance at his copilot. She is smiling calmly, seeming deep in thought, humming what he suspects might be a part of the song Chuck is singing. 

It is that display that has the blonde Ranger remember a glimpse of Mako memories from their drift. Mako – younger, her hair pulled back in a short ponytail – and a young red-haired teen. The two are in a kwoon, sparing in standard PPDC cloths, sweaty and grinning at each other. It is hitting him now, that this boy he saw a glimpse of in her head is Chuck. Softer, more open and so young. He and Mako are both children of the war, raised by men that had to fight day and night to have their people stay alive. They were raised side by side, growing up to formidable Jaeger pilots. And Raleigh has no idea how he had missed that information. 

“Mako, I… he…”

Her smile is soft, the corners of her eyes crinkling in amusement and Raleigh shuts his mouth. She and the Australian Ranger were friends for as long as they live in one Shatterdome or another and she knows that he will apologize in time. At least to her. The tiny, sad turn of her lips tells him that.

“I didn’t know.”

“I know.”

Her hand reaches for one of his own lying on the floor beside his thigh and she squeezes it once, soft but also firm. It tells so much about her that he has to smile. He squeezes back before he stands, grasping her wish for some privacy. Raleigh picks up the tray and nods at her once, leaving for the mess hall. He is one step down from the platform when Mako’s soft voice stops him. She is singing softly, picking up the song where Chuck has stopped, and the clattering on the stage above stops abruptly.

“Mako…?” comes Chuck’s voice, not as firm and hard as Raleigh is used to.  
The black-haired woman hums in agreement and Raleigh has just enough time to duck behind some metal structure – with no idea why he is hiding at all – before the Aussie comes skittering down the stairs opposite of him. He goes straight to Mako, stopping beside her and standing there awkwardly for a moment. He seems at a loss for what to do. His stance is radiating defense, but she just looks up and gives Chuck the time he needs. After a few moments, he lowers himself to the ground beside her. The young Ranger’s posture isn’t as open as Raleigh had seen in the memory, but it isn’t totally closed off either. Body slightly angled toward her, head ducked. Raleigh can’t grasp what he is saying to Mako, but a soft smile slowly lights up her delicate features. Raleigh feels lighter inside. He slowly retreats down the steps to leave them both alone.  
-  
-  
2.  
The second time Raleigh hears Chuck sing, loud and off-key and even worse than the first time, it still gets him as a surprise. And the warm feeling it leaves in his chest for hours afterward is a surprise too. Even at two in the night, the ‘dome is always full of life and activity. The slow thrumming of sky-high machines is keeping the huge metal building alive in a way that is calming and terrifying at the same time. It is easy to get lost in that thrum, just feeling it and letting it wash you away and into unconsciousness. Mako’s calming presence in his mind and Gipsy’s reassuring murmuring under his skin. Raleigh sleeps better then he could remember he had in the last five years since his brother was ripped from this world so abruptly.

But on some nights, there is no spell that can put his insomniac brain to rest. Tonight is one of this nights. He wanders the halls of the Shatterdome without any purpose for hours. If he isn’t able to sleep, he can at least go explore a bit. The ‘domes all over the world are mostly alike, build after the same idea, but there would always be some nocks and corners that were different and worth exploring. Besides that, it is strange to see the huge building – once a sign for earth’s victory against the Kaiju, home of the heroic machines humanity had built to fight the monsters – so worn down. Old and rugged, more light bulbs in unused corridors broken then intact. It is unsettling on an absolutely new level. They were never supposed to be a display of luxury, not even in the Rock-Star-Days, back in Raleigh’s and Yancy’s prime but all the ‘domes he had set food into were at least well cared for and high-tech.

“The last days of the war.”, Pentecost had said. Raleigh sighs while he trails his fingers over some nearly faded mandarin signs on the wall. He has no idea what they mean, but there is an arrow underneath, pointing to the left and he goes to follow that suggestion down the shabby hallway, till the next sign distracts him and he wanders in some other direction. It is nice to walk the halls, while no one of the people he crosses ways with did more than glance in his direction or greet him with a short nod.  
Raleigh lets himself got lost in it, all the noises and the people, all the dim corridors and old doors. More than once he wanders into a dead end, some clutter or a closed gate blocking his path. Jaeger-bay seems to call out to him, because without intending it, he ended up there three times, strolling in from different directions, with no idea that the gigantic hall was just around the corner.  
With no clue of the time, he finally walks into LOCCENT, two mugs of hot coffee in hand. The American had been sure he would find Tendo here and is not disappointed. Tendo Choi is maybe the only person he knows that functions on less sleep then he does. Raleigh has no idea when the chief technician does find time to sleep. Tendo is always in LOCCENT. He has the sneaking suspicion that the older man camps here and he wouldn’t be the last bit surprised to find out that  
Choi sleeps under his desk. 

But what is more, concerning at the moment is the fact that the other man is starring really intensely at his computer, not even noticing the blonde Ranger entering the room. Raleigh brows knit together in worry. But there is nothing out of the ordinary on the screen as far as he can tell while he slowly makes his way through the office. But even worse is the big grin on Tendo’s face that he spots as he stops at his side. At that moment the dark haired man catches sight of him in his peripheral vision. He startles with a yelp, knocking over his half-empty coffee mug in the process. 

“What the hell Becket-boy!?” Eyes bigger then plates he rips the heavy headphones from his ears, glaring up at the younger man. “God, you can’t creep up on a dude like that! Nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Dude…” Raleigh echoes with amusement, quirking an eyebrow. “You are too old to use such words, Tendo. Decades to old.”

“I will never be too old for that. Thank you.” With a happy sigh, Tendo accepts both cups with fresh coffee, draining half of the first one in on go. “So, Playing ghost tonight?” he asks after grimacing because the liquid is still too hot. 

While striding to the huge glass front overlooking the Jaeger bay, Raleigh nods. “Couldn’t sleep. Figured you might be still awake. Or awake again. And after seeing your grin, I want to know what is so entertaining.” He turns to the chief engineer. “So, bring it on.”

Tendo just chuckles with an eye roll and reaches for a switch to his left, bringing the audio he had listened to on the speakers. A loud voice fills the room. The quality is raspy and a bit static but good enough to hear the words and the humming and noises that come with it, a series of not really melodic verbal sounds, making up something that might have been a melody if listened to closely enough. There is not really in-tune clattering to hear as well. In the background is some beeping noise and for a moment Raleigh thinks there is a second one before he realizes that he could hear that beeping, faintly, through the glass behind him. So not an Audio. But a live transmission. He does recognize that voice, even before he starts to pay attention to the words.

”- the floor, floor  
Like it’s your last chance  
If you want more, more  
Then here I am  
Starships were meant to fly  
Hands up and touch the sky  
Can’t stop ‘cause we’re so high  
Let’s do –“ 

Raleigh can’t hear the rest of the sentence, because it finally catches up to him what he is hearing and he brakes his stunned silence to burst out laughing. “Oh, my…. Did he just- He makes his own sound effects??”

Tendo can’t hold in his laughter any longer, his shit-eating grin splitting up with it, as he is sinking back in his chair, head thrown back, laughing with full force. Nearly hysterical with it the blonde ranger flops in one of the chairs, burying his face in his hands. Through the speakers they can hear Chucks voice, more than a bit off-key, filtering away into humming for a moment, while there is some tinkering, before he picks up the song somewhere in the middle of the text, singing to loud and with far too much enthusiasm for ass o’clock in the middle of the night. Raleigh heaves a shaky sigh and can’t hold in his snickering while there is some puffing sound that might be the worst attempt of beatboxing he has heard in his life. Ever.

He has nearly calmed himself when Tendo’s remark of: “You know, I think the original singer was called Nicky Ninja or something.” is sending him into the next round of laughter and giggles.

“It sounds horrible, but never fails to make me smile. Best late night entertainment around here. Chuck would kill me if I tell him that.” Tendo turns the sounds down a bit, turning the loud singing in something more like a background noise. It doesn’t sound too bad like that. 

Raleigh rubs his hand over his face and takes a gulp of air to compose himself before he can trust his voice enough to speak. “He does that a lot?”

“Staying up late or singing?”

“Both?”

Tendo laughs a little. “Sometimes. The whole ‘dome’s high on nerves. And I guess not even scowling, arrogant little Hansen is immune to that.” It’s really not that hard to believe. Chuck might be the youngest and most promising student ever going through jaeger academy, twenty-one with already ten kaiju-kills under his belt but no one could just shrug off the double events and a suicidal mission looming at the horizon. Even when Hansen made a really good job at pretending the opposite.

“Nearly convinced me otherwise…” Raleigh mumbles under his breath at the same time as the singing is interrupted by a long and loud yawn. 

Tendo chuckles lightly and taps the speaking button on the mic in front of him. Raleigh’s eyes go big. “Hey, Chuckles. You know it is nearly five in the morning?”

The noises over the speaker fall death and Raleigh expects some cursing and bitter insults, holding his breath in anticipation. But all they get is a heavy yawn again. “Ya listening in on me, pervert? That’s stalking.”

“It’s entertainment.” Tendo replays with a short laugh. “Go to bed Hansen.” He releases the clip on the microphone and Chuck just hums. There is some more clattering and some cursing after what had sounded like the Aussie had bumped into something. And after a short huff that sounds suspiciously like “G’night” footsteps wander away.

“Stop looking like you just witnessed a pink rhino in a skirt. He can be civil.”

It isn’t that much of a surprise when Raleigh thinks about it. As far as he knows from Chuck’s personnel file and the glimpse he caught in the drift with Mako the young Ranger had been raised mostly in the military, by a father that traveled a lot all over the globe, housing in one Shatterdome or another. Raised alongside Mako and all the people that bothered with getting dragged along. It is without question that Tendo seems to be one of them. This self-made family, even when brittle in these last days of the world… The realization makes him carve for family and comfort of his own. It makes him think about Yancy and about all the things he had lost five years ago. But thinking about it now does not hurt as bad as he is used to. Because he has something again, something… Mako filling parts of the big missing piece in his mind, better than he could have imagined, could have hoped for. Tendo stirring up some shadow of the old friendship they once had. Even the presence of the other Pilots did help to get him focused and back in the game. 

And Chuck with his jackass attitude and horrible singing… “Say Tendo.” A big grin slowly spreads over Raleigh’s face. “You mightn't happen to have recorded that?”  
-  
-  
3.  
The third time Raleigh hears Chuck’s sing, he is just rounding the corner into the communal showers. All Rangers had their quarters in one corridor with a group bathroom and a shower room for all of them. It was pretty standard in some parts of the Shatterdome. No one except the Marshal had his own bathroom these days. 

Raleigh just wanted to wash all the filth and sweat away after a long day of practice in the kwoon. Mako had kicked his ass over and over again. He has some fresh clothes in hand and a towel around his neck. While stepping into the changing area he notices his mistake too late the moment he spotted Max sitting there, tongue lolling out, happily drooling onto the floor.

”- you think you're going, baby?  
Hey, I just met you,  
And this is crazy,  
But here's my number,  
So call me, maybe!  
It's hard to look right  
At you baby,  
But here's my number,  
So call me, maybe!  
Hey, I just met you,  
And this is crazy,  
But here's my number,  
So call me, maybe!  
And all the other girls,  
Try to chase me,  
But here's my number,  
So call me, maybe!”

Chuck is singing full force, his voice amazingly reflected by the tiles. It is such a surprise that Raleigh can’t help himself. He snorts a laugh. The singing stops abruptly. “Who is there?!”

“… Oh fuck.”, the blond ranger mutters while he can hear footsteps approaching really fast. He will never know why he did it, but at that moment the only option left is to drop his clothes and run.

“Stoop, you little shit! Max, sic him!”

Max is not moving, just barking and Raleigh manages to get out of the room in time. By the sounds of it, the young man won’t follow him because he is most likely naked. But Raleigh isn’t one for gamblers and only comes to a stop after he has closed the door of his room behind himself. If he is lucky Hansen hadn’t recognized who had been the intruder.  
\--  
Raleigh does realize his mistake the next day when he spots Chuck in the mess-hall, wearing the sand-gray sweater he had dropped yesterday and glaring at him from across the room like he could kill him with that look alone. Chuck being Chuck, his passive-aggressive behavior doesn’t stop at that, because he comes and sits opposite from Raleigh, and shit, a metal-laced boot to his shin does really fucking hurt.

“Ray.”, the Aussie drawls, before ducking into his barely cooked noodles. His foot stays where it is, now a bit more comfortably tucked against Raleigh’s. It’s some strange show of intruding his personal space.

Mako looks between both of them, her brow rising when she recognizes Chuck’s “new” sweater. The blonde Ranger would be impressed at her ability to look an absolutely new level of done, without much more than a miniature tightening of her lips, but he is too distracted by the man on the other side of the table.  
Even while shoveling food into his mouth like it is going out of style, his gray eyes stay locked with Raleigh’s, the laser-focus never wavering. He feels the urge to fight rise under his skin, but he stays put, grinding his teeth. Hansen is a miracle, really. He is pushing all the right buttons with his asshole-behavior - such a big contrast to the boy that likes to sing – so much that it is hard to put the two together into the same person.

Suddenly, Chuck pushes his tray back and stands, the older Ranger unthinkingly mirroring that action. They stare at each other over the table, a few long, tense moments, but break the tension before too many people in the mess hall notice.

“See ya, Raaa-leigh.” Then he is gone again.

Something in Raleigh snaps. He is out of the mess hall before he can think better of it. It takes him two corners to catch up to Chuck, who has just enough time to turn to him before Raleigh grabs him by the sweater and backs him up against the wall.

“What’s your problem with me, Hansen?”Their faces are only a few inches apart.

“Ya mean besides that ya're a useless washed out has-been?”

He really has to tamp down on the rising need to slam Chuck's head back against the concrete wall. Raleigh settles on giving him a good shake instead. He gets an ugly snarl in return. Afterward, Raleigh is not sure who leaned in first, but they meet in the middle, more like crashing into each other, in a biting, bruising kiss. More teeth than anything else. Chuck's fingers dig into his shoulders hard enough to leave bruises, while Raleigh’s hands slot against his hips. Holding onto. Bruising. He wants to leave his marks desperately all over the pale, freckled skin.  
Too distracted to hear the approaching footsteps, the blonde Ranger only comes back to awareness when he is shoved back hard, stumbling a few steps backward.   
Herc is standing at the corner of the hallway, an unimpressed look on his face. “Ya dickhead‘s fighting again?”

They are both breathing heavy and Chuck honest to god licks his bruised lower lip, look never leaving Raleigh’s eyes. “No, old man.”, he drawls, Australian accent even more prominent the usual, before stalking away.

Raleigh lets his head fall back against the wall with a thump and just sighs.  
-  
-  
4.  
Raleigh did not expect to hear Chuck sing a fourth time. But he also did not expect to wake up in the Aussie’s bunk after a long day and an even longer night, so he takes it in strides. The day had been a real train-wreck. The sudden double-event had got all of them by surprise and he still has not taken the time to properly mourn the Rangers they have lost. None of them can spare the time to give more than a few minutes of silence in this eventful times. Two Jaegers short,  
Striker and Gipsy damaged. They will mourn them later. Later. If there is anyone left to mourn for the Kaidanovskys and the Weis.

After the spectacular fight, Chuck had hunted him down, cornering him in one of the hallways. They had both run high on nerves and adrenaline and Raleigh had expected a fight but got a hard kiss instead. And an even harder fuck after the younger Ranger had dragged him to his bunk. 

Finally drained of all energy, they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms, both men stubbornly not acknowledging how desperately their hands were holding on. Both of them could have died today. Raleigh finds that he likes this outcome way better. And the way Chuck cuddles his face against his neck with a sleepy sigh it tells him that the younger Ranger might too.  
\--  
”- are our lives  
Till they die and send their knives  
the stoning of their words  
and the malice in their minds  
But we shall rise  
and much to their surprise  
Cos we are not the ones  
whose time -”

Raleigh slowly blinks awake, exhaustion heavy in his bones. His inner clock tells him that it has to be sometime in the middle of the night. Means he had four hours of sleep. Top. Groaning, the blonde man rolls to his side, intending to fall back asleep, and smashes his face against someone’s hip bone with such unexpected force, it's a miracle he doesn't break his nose. There is a sudden rush of breath above him, and Raleigh decides - Fuck it! - and cuddles closer. He curls his arm around that muscular thigh, knocking something solid away in the progress, and breathes in the scent. Oil and standard military soap, mixed with something earthy and herbal, that's so Chuck. After a moment he is rewarded with a warm hand that starts to run over his hair, fingernails exquisitely digging into his scalp.

“Did I wake ya, mate?” Chuck rights the tablet in his lap and looks down at him. He is wearing some headphones and looks tired as hell, dark circles under his eyes, skin pale.

“Mh... You were singing...”

“Oh! Bloody hell, didn't mean to do that.”

He goes a faint shade of red that clashes adorably with his freckles. Raleigh pulls on the cable of the headphones till they come loose, knocking them aside with the tablet. Slowly he gets the younger man to lie down. Chuck comes without much resistance.

“Why aren't you sleeping?”

Chuck heaves a deep sigh. “My arm hurts.”

He doesn't have to tell Raleigh that it is his father’s pain he is feeling through the drift. They both have lived through enough fights and simulations to know the drift-hangover by now and how intense it can get.

“It's all fucked up, mate. Can't pilot Striker without Dad.”

The earnest look on his tired, gray eyes makes Chuck look so his age and the blonde Ranger pulls him into a hug. The offered comfort is accepted without much of a hassle, something Raleigh would have never thought possible a few days ago.

“The Marshal will think of something. Finding another Co-pilot for you.”

“Not the same, Ray. And you know it.”

Yes, Raleigh knows all too well.  
-  
-  
5.  
The fifth time Raleigh hears the younger man sing it nearly chokes him. The emotions are so raw and pure, the sadness in the notes so clear that it feels like a slap in the face, like a cold bucket of water over his head. He had searched Chuck out with the intent to wish him good luck, tell him to not do something stupid – like facing a Kaiju with a flare gun – to come back whole. It feels like the right thing to do. Like the important thing to do. Operation Pitfall might be a suicide mission, but that doesn't mean that there is no way they couldn’t make it out alive. It has to be and he is determined to tell the younger Ranger that. There are so much more things he has to say to Chuck. And he will. When they are back.

But coming up to Chuck's quarters, he has to stop in the hall, staring at the half-open door. The boy sitting on the floor of his room, cradling his whining bulldog in his arms, has no similarities with the harsh and arrogant Jaeger Pilot people get to deal with. He hunches in around Max, looking small and vulnerable, his face pressed into the wrinkles around the dog’s neck. Max tries to lick his face and hands and whines even more heartbreakingly while he wants to comfort his human. 

It takes a moment till Raleigh realizes that Chuck is humming and whispering to his dog and a few more till the tune catches. They are no words to make out, but the melody is so familiar that his knees dare to buckle under the sudden rush of triggered memories of long snowy nights – warm hands tugging him in – feeling loved – his sister, still a toddler, cuddled along his side – hot chocolate – Yancy laughing warm and loud – his mother.

He blinks and feels the wetness on his face. Chucks hoarse voice carries the lullaby out in the hallway and he lets it wash over him and gives in finally, stepping through the open door, his heart in his throat. Raleigh sinks to the floor beside Chuck, leans his back against the bed. The young man curls into his side instantly, bulldog still in his lap. Chucks willingness to be seen vulnerable, to be comforted makes the air leave Raleigh’s lungs in a harsh breath. He envelops him in a tight hug and closes his eyes, forgets the time and the terrifying and uncertain future that haunts him more than his past.

Later, when they are curled up in bed together, Raleigh whispers the lullaby into Chuck’s skin alongside his kisses.  
-  
-  
+1  
The last time Raleigh hears Chuck’s voices, it is on the ground of the ocean, tons of tons of water above and between them. His rich voice is calm and a bit airy, but the words are firm. “Well, my father always said, if ya have a shot, ya take it. So let’s do this.”

Then static over the comm.

It will haunt Raleigh for years that no one had taken the time to tell Chuck “Goodbye”.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs:  
> 1\. See you again – Wiz Khalifa  
> 2\. Starships – Nicki Ninja  
> 3\. Call me maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen  
> 4\. Forever – six60  
> 5\. Some lullaby


End file.
